The usually stark Death Valley has been transformed into a garden of golden wildflowers.

Photograph by Jack Dykinga

See the ‘Super Bloom’ Bringing Life to Death Valley

Heavy storms in the fall spurred an explosion of growth in winter.

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By Wajeeha Malik

PUBLISHED March 2, 2016

One of the hottest and driest places on Earth is now, for a short while, covered in beautiful yellow, pink and purple wildflowers

Death Valley has wildflower blooms every year, but an unusual series of storms in October has triggered what some call a “super bloom,” seen in these photos. This is the biggest bloom Death Valley has seen in a decade.

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Desert gold, Geraea canescens, bloom in Death Valley following an El Niño winter.

Photograph by Jack Dykinga

The flowers that bloom lie dormant as seeds in the valley for most of the year. Varieties now blooming include the Desert Gold, the Golden Evening Primrose and the more elusive Desert Five-spot.

Previous super blooms were in 1998 and 2005. Those years, like 2015 and 2016, also saw heavy El Niño activity.

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The seeds for the Death Valley wildflowers lie dormant for most of the year. The blooms are short-lived, and so-called super blooms like this are rare.